~ My voice, my mind

Sequestration of Science Research definitely is Dumb and Arbitrary

Of all the things, sequestration is going to hit science research hard. First the government pays us peanuts, and then the government decides that peanuts are a luxury it can’t afford. ‘Dumb’ and ‘arbitrary’ really are the best words. What kind of arrogance drives a politician to cut jobs for thousands of science educators, but not to curb tax loopholes for owning private jets?

A series of articles in the last couple of days shows just how devastating sequestration can be for science.

Non-defense science does not cost the country much when you take into consideration the tremendous expenditure on other departments like defense. For example, look at defense spending trends over the last 13 years.

Compare this to science education and research expenditure.

Note how there was a dip in defense spending in only one year, 2009. This is the same year that science funding spiked.

This was because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The economy looked like it was going to get out of a recession.

And then 2010 happened. Republicans came back in power. Defense expenditure went up, education and science spending went down, the economy tanked. Everyone is miserable again.

Millions of educators and researchers are going to see a smaller paycheck or might not have a job at all. Yet, wall street gives its executives pay hikes and higher incentives. The Fed essentially got GM and Citibank out of their mess if anyone remembers. Yet, it is the Fed and anyone that relies on them for their salary that suffers.